London: Country style, made to measure

Gents outfitter Jeremy Hacketts south London home is an oasis in the city, says Simon Brooke

Like many city dwellers, Jeremy Hackett wanted to live in the country, but found it impossible because of business pressures. His solution was to create a little bit of the country in the capital — in Stockwell, south London, to be precise.

“I’d tried loft living but decided that it wasn’t for me — I didn’t like the idea of having just one room,” says the founder of the eponymous fashion label, which is dedicated to getting lads to dress as gents and describes itself as Essential British Kit.

So six years ago Hackett, 52, sold his Stockwell loft to celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay and acquired a Georgian cottage just a stone’s throw away. The price was £450,000.

“It was a wreck, but a romantic wreck,” he says with a smile. “It had no central heating and nobody had done anything to it for years.” Including internal and external building work, rewiring,